Hell or High Water Read Free

somewhere nobody knows us. Then you’ll be safe.”
    “I’m not stupid. I intend to be careful.” Kay kept her old Camaro’s speed level. Getting a traffic ticket wasn’t on the agenda. She’d take care of her personal stuff first, but her main reason for this little outing was the trip to the morgue.  
    “I like Tyrell’s idea of us spending a week on Padre Island. A butt crack full of sand, half-naked men and an order of hot sex on the side sounds good to me. Our vacations always fall victim to you chasing a case.”  
    “Damn it, Holly. Leann Vaughn is dead.” Speaking the words started a tremor deep inside that spread until Kay’s hands vibrated on the steering wheel.  
    “Excuse me for trying to cheer you up.” Holly’s gaze shifted. She stared out the window.
    “I’m sorry,” Kay quickly said, applying a mental slap to her head. “I’m upset at the system and myself. We’re why the girl is dead.”
    “Don’t start that crap.” Holly’s wounded tone had vanished. “You’re an investigator. You did your job.”  
    “My job was to protect her.” She pressed harder on the gas pedal. The surge of power from her car mirrored the flood of anger pumping through her system. “I don’t buy into this crap she committed suicide. The entire thing bugs me. Leann’s state of mind was good. Nothing she said makes me believe she’d take her own life.”
    “Believing somebody killed her might be your way of easing this unreasonable guilt you’re feeling.”
    “Think what you want. I’m not convinced it’s a suicide.” Kay exhaled a shuddering breath. “Leann outsmarted the bastards who kidnapped her, raped her and sold her to be a sex slave. She wanted to live. Something’s not right, and I need to figure it out.”  
      “Then maybe you should slow down. I’ve never fancied myself in a pileup on Interstate 75.”
    Kay lowered her speed. Holly, with her eclectic looks and humor usually lightened a somber mood. Not today. She simply didn’t get it. Regardless of how Leann died, Kay was at fault.  
    “You worry me,” Holly announced.
    “Why? Because I care?”
    “No. Because you get too close.” Holly emitted an audible sigh. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”
    “You can help by dropping me off at the morgue’s side door. Run by work and bring me Leann’s file. I’ll call you when I’m ready to leave.” Kay laughed at Holly’s raised eyebrow. “Sheesh, we’re talking ten blocks. You’ll be back before I’m ready to leave.”  
      ****
    Kay signed in and made her way down the stark white halls of the medical examiner’s building. She paused for one last breath before pushing her way through the double doors to where the air was frigid, dank and produced a sweetish scent.  
    Her grandfather sat at a small, weathered metal desk. A bronze name plate that read Doctor Wendell Taylor had been shoved to the side. His half-glasses were perched on the end of his nose, and he was staring at a computer screen as if any second it would speak. His disheveled silver hair and a pocket protector full of odd items, which caused down one side of his white smock to sag, gave him an absentminded professor appearance. He spoke with the assurance of a man who’d been medical examiner for thirty-plus years. If anyone had doubts about his qualifications, their questions quickly vanished. The morgue was his domain.
    The urge to run into his arms for comfort gripped her heart and squeezed. She’d made her mother promise not to mention the kidnapping to him. No need to worry him. She cleared her throat to avoid startling him.
    He swiveled his chair in her direction. A smile lit his face. “Kaycie.”  
    “Hey, Papa.” Hearing her full name had her reaching for the small medallion hanging around her neck. Papa, her seventy-two-year-old grandfather, and Nathan Wolfe, the ass who’d broken her heart, were the only men who’d always called her by her given name. She jerked her